Google TV Getting on Just Fine in YouTube

Rumors of Google TV's demise are greatly exaggerated, even though the service is not without its flaws and imperfections. Expect it to get better over time.

News Analysis: Just a few short days ago, the sky
appeared to be falling on Google TV, the
Web and channel-surfing hybrid service based on Google's Android operating
system and accessed by Google's Chrome Web browser.
First, the majority of reviews throughout the week have
been downcast, with many testers proclaiming Google TV unpolished, buggy or
downright inaccessible from some Websites.

Then came this
report from the San Francisco Chronicle with a headline that originally
proclaimed Google TV "troubled" and shunted off to YouTube,
presumably to wither and die.

Citing what are no doubt TV industry curmudgeons troubled
by Google TV, the Chronicle attributed the move to "negative reaction to
the new Internet television service among major media companies."
Television networks ABC, CBS and NBC are shielding programming on their Websites from Google TV, concerned that the
service does not adequately protect their programming from piracy.
However, a Google spokesperson told eWEEK there is no
correlation between ABC, CBS and NBC blocking Google TV users from accessing
their full-length Web shows and Google TV's migration to YouTube, which was
reorganized Sept. 17.
Google TV's move to YouTube happened quietly after the
reorg, but before the service launched on Logitech Revue and Sony Internet TVs
and Blu-ray players within the last two weeks.
A Google spokesperson told eWEEK
Google TV has always reported into YouTube -- and its reporting
structure has remained largely unchanged.
"Just like any rapidly growing organization, it is
important for YouTube to evolve and grow to ensure further success in the
future," the
Google spokesperson said.
And it looks like part of that future success involves
Google TV. Some might see this as a failure for Google TV, that it needs a
strong business unit responsible for Google's $2.5 billion run-rate in display
ad sales.
It's not a banishment, but a sign that Google is looking
to extend YouTube as a real broadcast medium with unpolished and professional
content alike. Others are finding the same.
The YouTube reorg included the
creation of a group focused on partnerships with content creators, led by
former Google TV alumnus Dean Gilbert.